Day of festivities planned for Navajo Code Talker Day

As many as 700 people are expected to attend the Navajo Nation Code Talkers Day event this year at the Veterans' Memorial Park in Window Rock.

The event will be held on Aug. 14, which is federally recognized as Navajo Code Talker Day.

"Last year we prepared food for 500 people and ran out," said Michael Smith, who is coordinating the event, so this year the organizers are looking at between 600 and 700 to attend.

Events, which include a parade, speeches and gourd dancing, will go on from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Several code talkers are expected to attend, said Smith, who added that about 20 code talkers attended the event last year.

Church Rock man swept away by flash flood

By Bill Donovan
Special to the Times

WINDOW ROCK - Navajo police from the Crownpoint District began searching late Tuesday afternoon for a Navajo man who had been reported missing in a flash flood that occurred Sunday afternoon north of Church Rock, N.M.

The missing person was identified as Oscar Largo, 43, who is from the Church Rock area.

Navajo officials said the search for Largo is part of a series of problems that communities had over the weekend because of flooding and rain.

According to Navajo Police Officer Patricia Henry, police first began aware of Largo being missing on Tuesday when his girlfriend, Loretta Allen, told Largo's family members that she had not seen him since Sunday afternoon. She and three men were swept away in a flash flood when they were sleeping under a bridge between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. near the Dead Horse Saloon.

NTUA floats natural gas rate increase

By Cindy Yurth
Tséyi' Bureau

CHINLE — A proposed hike in the Navajo Tribal Utilities Authority's natural gas rates drew little resistance at a sparsely attended public forum on July 31.

"It's probably something we have to live with, just like gas for our car," sighed Chinle resident Joe Davis. "We realize the costs are up, up and up. Nothing's going back down."
The increase would cost a residential customer who uses 40 therms of natural gas a month an additional $2 to $3 a month, phased in over a four-year period.

The service charge would go from $3.50 to $7.25 per month and usage charge would increase from 25 cents to 46 cents per therm via incremental increases between this October and January of 2018.

Senior citizens and those with critical medical needs who fall under NTUA's "life support" program would pay a $2.75 per month service charge and about 42 cents per therm. They presently don't pay a service charge and their charge per therm is about 23 cents.